Vincent leaned on Vicki’s desk and asked her, “Do you know what all of these stacks of paper are and which ones are important?”

Vicki looked up with a beatific smile on her face and said, “Of course I do, Mr. O’Donoghue.” She began to point at papers and said, “These are product announcements that I’ve sent to you, and I’ll file for future reference. Over there are the new products that you’ve selected for the stores. I keep them in a folder in case you want to check performance later. This small stack here has letters from other managers. Most of the communication is email now, but some of these guys still write paper letters…”

Interrupting Vicki, Vincent said, “Okay, that’s fine. I just worry that you buried a bill somewhere, and we’ll miss it.”

Vicki shook her head and said, “Oh, that won’t happen at all. Most of the bills are in electronic form now, and the ones that aren’t I send directly to the bookkeeper. They would never pile up on my desk, Mr. O’Donoghue.”

Vincent stood up straight and asked, “Do you know anything about renovating houses?”

Turning away from her computer screen, Vicki mused, “Home renovation. I watch some of the TV shows.”

“Do you know anything about a company called ADJ Associates?”

Vicki scratched her head and said, “That sounds familiar for some reason. Hang on a second. Let me think…” Then her eyes widened. “Oh, yes, I remember! They did a show on the local PBS channel. That interior design guy is handsome, Mr. O’Donoghue. He has those dark brown eyes and an adorable smile. Why do you ask?””

“I’ve hired them to work on the new house.”

“Oh, that’s exciting!” said Vicki. “Will they stop by here at all? I think I would swoon at…” She paused deep in thought again. Then she said out loud, “A…A…Andrew! That’s his name. My knees would grow weak if I saw Andrew in person.”

Vincent was surprised that his first thought was he couldn’t disagree with Vicki’s assessment of Andrew, but he wanted to know more of what she thought when she saw him. He asked, “So what is so handsome about him, Vicki?”

She said, “Well, let me remember.” She paused for a few moments and then said, “He looked so much smarter than the average man. I like men that are just a little bit older than me, and that dark, thick head of hair. I just wanted to run my fingers through that, and I wanted to kiss him.” She giggled as she commented about kissing. “I guess that doesn’t mean much to you in hiring him.”

Vincent was silent in response to that comment. He said, “I’m going to meet with the entire team at their headquarters, and Andrew promised to have a basic proposal for a package deal with the three of them working on the house.”

“When do I get to see it, Mr. O’Donoghue?” Vicki did her best to look eager but not demanding. She was always curious about the personal life of her boss, and she knew how difficult his life had been over the past few years. Now she hoped to get to share some of the better times.

“Do you want to see it before or after the work is finished?” asked Vincent.

“I would love to see both.”

“Then I’ll bring you over soon,” said Vincent. “Maybe we could have a little picnic in the house with Mandy.”

“Oh! I could bring chicken salad or egg salad sandwiches. Would Mandy like that?”

Vincent said, “Definitely egg salad, and I’ll look at the schedule with her tonight. I’m sure she will be happy to see the house again. Now I need to get some work done in the office. If Andrew or Mandy calls, put them right through, but hold everything else for now. You can send an email about it if it sounds like something that can’t wait until the morning.”

“Sounds perfect, Mr. O’Donoghue.”

---

Vincent retreated to his office with his mind on anything but work. He settled into the chair behind his desk and searched ADJ Associates. The firm’s web site popped up, but it didn’t contain any photos of Andrew or the other partners. Instead, it had links to their top projects. Vincent browsed quickly through several of them, and he was impressed with the quality of work. His new house might be one of their showcases.

He thought about the price tag on the renovations, and, even though he told Andrew that $100,000 was out of his price range, it would still be doable if necessary. Vincent and Dana planned for long-term retirement as a couple, and they put away significant sums of money beyond work-related retirement plans. Dana also had a pension from her employment as a teacher that went to Vincent every month as a survivor. He was confident that he was financially well-equipped to both provide a comfortable home and a tidy sum to apply toward Mandy’s college education.

Vincent typed in “Andrew McCall Minneapolis” as an image search on the Internet. Multiple photos appeared. Vincent looked closely at a picture from a recent awards presentation. He expanded the image so that he could focus on Andrew’s face. Vincent still couldn’t completely understand his response.

Many years ago in college, Vincent experimented sexually with his college roommate. It was only a few nights fueled by a significant amount of alcohol, and shortly after Vincent fell in love with Dana. He always noticed handsome men, and he enjoyed the eye candy when young men took off their shirts in the warm Minnesota summer, but he never seriously thought about anything more than gazing from afar…until now.

Vincent stared at Andrew’s face and wondered how Andrew would kiss. Would his lips feel the same as a woman’s? Would they be just as soft? What about his tongue? Vincent was startled when he felt stiffening between his legs.

He heard a knock on the door frame of his office, and Vincent quickly shut down the images. He looked up with a slightly flushed face to see Vicki smiling. She held out a small box and said, “Suzi from Customer Service downstairs just brought this up. It has a little tag on it that says ADJ Associates. I thought you might want to know, Mr. O’Donoghue.”

Vincent stood up from his desk and self-consciously smoothed his shirt and his wool pants. He stepped forward and took the box saying, “Yes, thank you. It’s ideal for you to interrupt me for a gift like this.”

“I bet they are tasty chocolates,” said Vicki. “It’s a pretty little box.”

After he watched Vicki disappear back to her desk, Vincent sat down at his desk with the box. It was small with a lid containing three interlocking circles of the primary colors red, blue and yellow. A gold-colored bow was tied around the box, and it held a tag with the ADJ Associates three-letter logo on the front.

Vincent opened the tag to read inside. It carried a hand-written note that said, “A small token of our pleasure in looking forward to working with you.” It was signed, “Andrew” in big swooping letters.

Untying the bow, Vincent gently pulled the lid of the box off. Four beautiful chocolate truffles nestled inside. Two were lighter-colored. They were milk chocolate, and the other two were deep, rich dark chocolate. Silvery crystals of sugar decorated the tops.

Vincent remembered the many times he gave Dana chocolates as gifts. Every Valentine’s Day he remembered, but they also were a special gift for no particular reason. Vincent knew that deep in his heart he was an unrepentant romantic, and he couldn’t think of anything as romantic as chocolate other than roses. Together they were a smashing combination.

Despite his love for giving them as a gift, Vincent had never received chocolates for himself. He bought truffles on his own when purchasing a gift for someone else, and he often shared in the collection of chocolates he gave to Dana.

Now, the first time he received them as a gift, it was from a man. It wasn’t just any man. It was the man he was staring at on his computer when Vicki knocked.

Vincent pulled the photo back up on his computer as he wedged his thick fingers into the box to pick up one of the dark chocolates. Vicki commented about Andrew’s dark, thick hair, and Vincent looked closely.

He thought about the moment that he leaned back against Andrew’s chest with Andrew’s arms wrapped around his own body. Then he popped the entire truffle in his mouth. The thick, rich, sensuous taste spread over his tongue. Vincent closed his eyes and thought about running his fingers through Andrew’s hair and their lips brushing together while he chewed the melting chocolate.

Then he opened his eyes, quickly shut the box, and shoved it into the middle drawer of his desk. Vincent felt himself seized by temporary insanity. He was not looking for anyone in a romantic sense, and if he was, he was fairly confident it would not be a man. He reasoned quickly that the interest in Andrew was fueled by the happenstance of their physical touching and Vicki’s fan crush.

Vincent punched at a key on his keyboard to make the monitor screen glow once again. Twelve emails in his inbox were unread. It was time to focus on real work. He could muse about ADJ Associates and the new house when he returned home. Vincent let out a heavy sigh when he noticed the first email was from Andrew.

It was written in a business tone and suggested that Vincent meet with the entire team. He said that it was easier to envision the overall project, and everyone would be available for questions. Then he dangled possible times during the day and in the evening in case work didn’t allow.

Vincent searched his schedule. He tried to protect as many evenings as possible to spend time with Mandy, but he spotted an upcoming night she was planning to spend at the house of a friend. Speaking out loud to himself, Vincent said, “It looks like Thursday works.”

He composed a quick email back to suggest the Thursday evening, and then he found himself staring off into space thinking about Andrew again.

Vicki returned to the doorway and knocked once more. She said, “Mr. O’Donoghue, I have a man here in the office that insists you were going to talk to him about eggs.”

Vincent laughed softly and said, “You know, Vicki, I would love to talk about eggs right now. In fact, I’m not sure there is anything else I would rather talk about than eggs.”

Vicki tilted her head to the right and was struck silent for a moment. When she spoke, she asked, “Does that mean I should send him in?”

“Please do.”

Vincent settled back into his desk chair while a young, earnest man with a long face and long hair entered his office. He held out two cartons and said, “Mr. O’Donoghue, I try to be humble, but I do believe I raise the chickens that lay the finest eggs in all of Minnesota. I have examples right here. I also brought photos of our operation on my phone that I can show you. We are certified organic, and our hens spend plenty of time in the sunshine and scratching for food in real grass. It would be my honor to bring my eggs to your customers.”

With a flourish, he opened the two cartons to reveal brown eggs that looked at first glance like any other. Vincent pulled his hands up behind his head and said, “I’m ready to be impressed. Go on and tell me more. Tell me the story of these eggs.”